Purchasers solicitors driving me up the wall...

[Deleted User]

We sold our flat in August last year, and took a while to find a replacement property, which we did in October. Things seemed to be moving along nicely for all concerned until just before Christmas.

Our purchasers solicitor (after chasing us in November wanting to exchange), came up with a load of additional enquiries (after they'd been sitting on their laurels for a couple of months). We answered these although we've not heard back. Yesterday I phoned our Estate Agent to check on things and to say that we wanted to exchange at the end of this week.

Apparently our purchasers solicitors are now asking for a FENSA certificate or indemnity policy for our double glazed windows. The problem is our windows were put in in 2001 - before the FENSA standard came into force. If they actually bothered to check the Sellers Form I filled in they would know this! They also have copies of the warranties for the windows which state the installation date...

However, I'm wondering if they can still insist on this policy even though we do not have to comply with FENSA regulations?

I'm also wondering if they are getting a FENSA cert mixed up with having permission from the landlords to put the windows in? The flat I have is in a converted Victorian house which has it's own management company which bought the leasehold. Each flat is a partner in the management company, therefore we are our own landlords, so we can basically do what we want (within reason) with the verbal agreement of the others.

These guys are starting to do my head in, they said they were in a position to exchange in November and are now delaying everyone

Rant over....

silvercar

Firstly you have very patient buyers if they were prepared to wait from August to October for you to find a property. Obviously their solicitor is going to do minimal work until you find a property otherwise your buyers will incur legal costs that will be wasted if you decide not to move. I don't think you can complain that they are delaying things when you kept them waiting for months.

Remind them that you have supplied copies of the warrenties and that the windows were installed before the FENSA deadline.

Your "do what we want with verbal agreement" sounds a bit vunerable, what happens if there are arguements later? I wouldn't directly mention this in relation to the windows in case you open a can of worms. In general terms owning a share of the freehold should be reassuring.

[Deleted User]

silvercar wrote:

Firstly you have very patient buyers if they were prepared to wait from August to October for you to find a property. Obviously their solicitor is going to do minimal work until you find a property otherwise your buyers will incur legal costs that will be wasted if you decide not to move. I don't think you can complain that they are delaying things when you kept them waiting for months.

We are very grateful for our purchasers being this patient, however they knew that it might take us a while to find a property when they offered and seemed happy to wait. When they offered we had already been looking for 2 months with no success and we were very upfront about this. We also gave them plently of opportunity to withdraw their offer should they want to, with no hard feelings.

It just seems that they were chasing us to exchange in November saying everything was signed, sealed and delivered, and now they are coming up with things that could have been asked much earlier.

Currently the verbal agreement works nicely, we do have meeting and minutes noting any changes, so we have got 'official' records to refer to later. I think it works as there are only 3 flats and we are all aware of how major changes could affect the others.